Jadran Lenarčič

Long-time director of the Jožef Stefan Institute and robotics lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana.
Jadran Lenarčič’s professional life is closely connected with scientific research in robotics. He is one of the pioneers of robotics in the country and is recognized internationally. He was employed at the Jožef Stefan Institute, by far the largest research institute in the country, for forty-two years. He was also its director for more than fifteen years. Today he is retired but is still active as a consultant to the Institute. He is also involved in various national and international boards, committees, councils and other advisory bodies at various institutions and works as a robotics lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana. He is one of the founding members of the Engineering Academy of Slovenia, he was also its president and vice president. He is also a corresponding member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Bologna, Italy.

Jadran Lenarčič is a robotics scientist by profession, but his passion for painting never left him. Jadran Lenarčič, born in 1955, spent his youth by the sea, and memories of the Mediterranean town of Koper resuscitate his inspiration. He is a member of the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts and he had solo art exhibitions in Slovenia and Austria. Although he was already involved in painting from a young age, he decided to study electrical engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, where he received his bachelor’s, masters and doctorate degrees. After his studies, he decided to pursue a professional career as a scientist, but at the same time, he was also involved in the arts. He perceives his involvement in arts as his lifestyle, in which there is no border between science and art. 

Prof. Jadran Lenarčič received B. Sc., M. Sc., and Ph. D. degrees from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 1985, he was appointed Head of the Robotics Laboratory and in 1995 Head of the Department of Automatics, Biocybernetics and Robotics of the J. Stefan Institute. From 2005 to 2020, he was Jožef Stefan Institute’s director, the country’s largest research institute (more than 1100 employees). He is now retired but collaborates with the institute as a scientific advisor. He is also a full professor at the University of Ljubljana. He was visiting scholar at the University of Hull (UK), the University of Ferrara (Italy), the University of Bologna (Italy), and Notre Dame University (USA).

Jadran Lenarčič is the initiator and chairman of well-known elite international symposia Advances in Robot Kinematics. The first was organized in 1988 in Ljubljana (Slovenia), and the last one in Spain in 2022. Prof. Lenarčič was the chair of seventeen ARK symposia. He contributed to more than one hundred other international conferences as a chair or member of the program committee.

His basic research interests are in robotics, robot kinematics, and humanoid robotics. He was one of the founders of robot kinematics as an independent field of research. His contributions are in the area of modelling and simulation of robots, mathematical evaluation and optimization of robot mechanisms, modelling of human upper extremities and control of redundant robots. He is a co-author and co-editor of several international books on robotics and robot kinematics. Prof. Lenarčič was among the pioneers of Slovenian robotics, his doctorate was the first in this field in Slovenia.

Prof. Lenarčič has served in national and international committees and boards, among others he was appointed Member of the Search Committee for the President of the European Research Council, Member of the Executive committee of EARTO for many years (EARTO is the largest association of European research institutes), Member of the Robotics and Automation Committee of the IFToMM international association.

Prof. Lenarčič is a recipient the National Medal of Work with Silver Wreath, the Italian Cavaliere nell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana and the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérit. In 2019, he was awarded the title of Personality of the year in Slovenia and Business Leader of the Year 2022.

J. Lenarčič is a Full Member of the Slovenian Academy of Engineering and served as President and Vice-President. He is also a Corresponding Member of the Accademia Delle Scienze di Bologna (Italy).